This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Lara Scott: We have a jam-packed episode of West of Broadway with a review of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical that Lara saw with my husband Bill Shepherd.

[0:07] Will Armstrong: And we catch up with Broadway legend Karen Mason backstage on tour with her production of Love Never Dies.

[0:13] Lara Scott: And we get our first report from our correspondent Jennifer Lynn O'Hara.

[0:27] Will Armstrong: It's curtains up on another episode of West of Broadway, a celebration of musical theater in Los Angeles.

[0:33] Lara Scott: I'm radio host, writer, and theater enthusiast Lara Scott, along with celebrity publicist and theater veteran Will Armstrong.

[0:40] Will Armstrong: Welcome.

[0:41] Lara Scott: I know. We're so excited to be talking about, well, I was gonna say our experience, but really it was mine and your husband Bill's experience.

[0:47] Will Armstrong: Opening night of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Hollywood Pantages Theater.

[0:52] Lara Scott: But first, before we jump into that, we're gonna get into some LA Theater buzz.

[0:55] Will Armstrong: That is right.

[0:56] Lara Scott: And from movie to musical and now to the movie musical, An American in Paris will be coming to movie theaters across the U.S. on Thursday, September 20th, and Sunday, September 23rd.

[1:05] Will Armstrong: Tickets for An American in Paris can be purchased at anamericaninpariscinema.com.

[1:10] Lara Scott: I love when they do that.

[1:12] Will Armstrong: And I've seen them do that with some other Broadway shows, like I've seen the previews for it.

[1:15] Lara Scott: Right.

[1:15] Will Armstrong: Where it's Fathom Events or one of those companies, and it's one night only.

[1:19] Lara Scott: But you get to see it on the big screen.

[1:20] Will Armstrong: Exactly.

[1:21] Lara Scott: That sounds so fun. And I'm so excited for this year's Lithgow Family Panto.

[1:25] Will Armstrong: It's The Wonderful Winter of Oz, featuring Kermit the Frog as the Wizard of Oz, and Tony Award winner Marissa Jarrett Winokur as Glinda.

[1:34] Lara Scott: And we were talking to our friend Peter, and I said, what exactly is a panto?

[1:37] Will Armstrong: I mean, I saw the one they did last year, which was great, but he said it's where you have a classic tale where we all know the story, but then it's modern music and current jokes.

[1:45] Lara Scott: So fun.

[1:45] Will Armstrong: And that's playing December 14th through 30th at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

[1:49] Lara Scott: You can check out pasadenacivic.com for tickets.

[1:52] Will Armstrong: I'm so excited that they're doing this because pantos are super traditional entertainment in England, and they're bringing it here to the States, and they've been doing it for a number of years now, but it's like it's so much fun.

[2:02] Lara Scott: And I'm really glad that they're exposing that to a whole new generation.

[2:05] Will Armstrong: And you know what's funny, Lara, is I am such a novice at this, and again, thank God for you for so many reasons.

[2:10] Lara Scott: I was like, oh, the Lithgow family invented a panto. Like I thought it was something they came up with.

[2:15] Will Armstrong: And now it's like been around for hundreds of years.

[2:17] Lara Scott: Yeah.

[2:18] Will Armstrong: And because the Lithgow family, they do tons of them over in the UK as well in the fact that you know who that's Nigel Lithgow.

[2:25] Lara Scott: Exactly.

[2:25] Will Armstrong: Yeah, from So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol or everything.

[2:28] Lara Scott: So he knows what he's doing.

[2:29] Will Armstrong: He and his family know their way around a stage.

[2:31] Lara Scott: So it's gonna be a lot of fun. And speaking of introducing to a new generation, I took my son, who just turned eight last year, and he loved it because it was like it was Beauty and the Beast.

[2:40] Will Armstrong: So traditional story that we know changed up a little bit, but with like "Stayin' Alive" and "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus as the songs.

[2:46] Lara Scott: So, getting back to more of is that totally traditional, I would say, but getting back to the Pantages this week.

[2:53] Will Armstrong: Well, maybe you can get us into this and talk a little bit about Beautiful and what it is.

[2:58] Lara Scott: Great. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical tells the inspiring true story of Carol's rise to stardom from being part of a successful songwriting team to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in pop music history.

[3:08] Will Armstrong: It's in town at the Pantages Theatre through September 30th, and I know we had plans to see it together, but sometimes our day jobs get in the way.

[3:16] Lara Scott: And I was actually covering an event for one of my clients, so I asked my amazing husband, Bill Shepherd, to escort you to Beautiful, and he's here in studio with us to discuss the show with you.

[3:26] Bill Shepherd: Hi.

[3:27] Lara Scott: Long time listener, first time guest.

[3:30] Will Armstrong: Well, you know, I was sad that you couldn't come, Will, but I was so happy to get to hang out with Bill, who I never really get to hang out with solo.

[3:36] Lara Scott: Right.

[3:36] Will Armstrong: And we had a great time, and we actually looked at because you were across the street at the W, right across Hollywood Boulevard, and we waved at the balcony.

[3:43] Lara Scott: I looked down several times to see if I could see you.

[3:45] Bill Shepherd: At the little people.

[3:49] Lara Scott: But you know, here's the interesting thing, and full disclosure here. We came out at intermission, and it's inside the Pantages Theater, just a heads up, everybody post your social media photos before you go into the auditorium because there's not a great signal in there, those thick walls, which we left.

[4:04] Will Armstrong: Right? Like, do it ahead of time or you know, wait till intermission when you can kind of come out.

[4:07] Lara Scott: So I wasn't getting any texts or anything, not that I'd be reading them during the show. But I came out to a text from my husband that our babysitter had hurt her foot.

[4:15] Will Armstrong: Oh no.

[4:15] Lara Scott: And so I ended up meeting her at Urgent Care. I had to take off at intermission. I know what happens with Carol's life, but I'm extra, extra glad that we have Bill here to fill us in on the second half of the show.

[4:25] Bill Shepherd: It was so good, I can't imagine things going horribly wrong or anything like that.

[4:29] Lara Scott: But you know, Bill, you're a theater fan. Obviously, you're married to Will, who has tons of theater experience. What was your just kind of overall impression of Beautiful?

[4:38] Bill Shepherd: So I, unlike you guys, am not a big Carole King history buff. And so when I got the playbill, I was super tempted to open it up to look at all the acts and see what the songs were. But I held off because I didn't know everything about her history and the songs that she's written and that she sung and everything, and so I wanted to be surprised.

[4:58] Lara Scott: And so for the first act, I kept looking over at you, Lara, and I was like, oh my god, she wrote that. Oh my god, she sang that. Oh my god, they wrote that? Like it was like literally every single hit of the last four decades was written by Carole King and her husband.

[5:15] Will Armstrong: We know all of those songs.

[5:17] Bill Shepherd: Yeah, but I had this same reaction, and we heard everybody around us going, oh, like when they would start. And so I would say, maybe if you want to be surprised, don't open the playbill until maybe intermission, or maybe even until the whole thing is over. Because it was really fun to have those revelations and those, oh wow, we call them "oh wow" moments when you hear something like that, like that song, and you're like, that was her, that was her.

[5:38] Lara Scott: And did you like, Bill, how they, it felt like a play and it also felt like a concert because they would have these groups come out and perform the full song, not just a snippet of a lot of them. And it was like you were at a concert with the Drifters, you know, or some of these famous acts from the 60s.

[5:55] Bill Shepherd: It was really neat. What I really loved about this play that I thought they did very uniquely was that they would have these groups. So, right? So Carole wrote for the Shirelles and then the Drifters, and you'd have these groups of four, and then they would turn into another band, and they'd have another person of the ensemble be the lead.

[6:15] Lara Scott: Yeah, so the lead would rotate, and then everybody in the cast on the ensemble kind of got a chance to be the star of that certain song.

[6:22] Bill Shepherd: Yeah, and so like everyone had to have such a good voice and had to be so on point, and you got to see all of the talent that's in this amazing cast.

[6:30] Lara Scott: Yes, oh my gosh, so talented. And you know, the interesting thing too, Bill, and also Will, since you weren't there for this, but they set it up as okay. So Carole King met her husband Jerry Goffin when they were very young, they were at college together, which and they have this whole amazing story of their relationship, but they sort of had this pair of frenemies, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, and it makes it even better to know this was real, like this actually happened.

[6:53] Bill Shepherd: And Don Kirshner, Donnie, the record guy, kind of pitted them against each other, like who's gonna have the song that's gonna go to this group? Who's gonna do the best? And so they were friends, but they were also competing to see who could write the better song and just seeing them go back and forth.

[7:07] Lara Scott: Did you see on the Instagram, on the Pantages Instagram, Bill, that Barry Mann, the real Barry Mann, was there?

[7:13] Bill Shepherd: There was a picture of him on the red carpet.

[7:22] Lara Scott: I know, I know, and I wish we could talk to him and get his thoughts, but I just, I'm with you. I thought it was a spectacularly talented cast having to sing a wide variety of songs.

[7:32] Will Armstrong: And Lara, your friend Gabby Gabrielle was in the Broadway production. What role did she play?

[7:38] Bill Shepherd: She was in the ensemble, so she did, she was one of the Shirelles and she did, yeah, so it, she played a bunch of different roles in it. She's incredibly talented and I would have loved to have seen her in that. You have to ask her about the magical costumes. They're probably not going to say how they did it, but do you remember that scene, Bill, where they sort of walked, they were just sort of in like business clothes and they walk through an archway and suddenly they're in like glamour girl dresses?

[7:58] Lara Scott: It was like in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella if you've seen how they do the gowns.

[8:02] Bill Shepherd: Sure.

[8:02] Lara Scott: Well, it's a lot, I guarantee it's a lot of Velcro and little secret snaps that just like drop like cutaway pants.

[8:08] Bill Shepherd: Exactly like that.

[8:08] Lara Scott: It's amazing what they can do.

[8:10] Will Armstrong: It's the magic of theater.

[8:13] Lara Scott: Yeah, it is. What was your favorite song, Bill? Can you think of it?

[8:16] Bill Shepherd: Oh boy, there are so many really good songs, but I think just call out my name and you know wherever I am I'll come running.

[8:33] Lara Scott: Boop boop boo.

[8:34] Bill Shepherd: I had no idea she sang that song either.

[8:38] Lara Scott: Right?

[8:39] Bill Shepherd: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, James Taylor wasn't mentioned in this, I don't think. Weren't they friends?

[8:42] Lara Scott: Neither was Aretha Franklin.

[8:44] Bill Shepherd: Yeah.

[8:44] Lara Scott: And that's the only song that I knew that Carole King wrote and sang was because of Aretha Franklin's funeral was so recent. And I was watching YouTube clips and she sang it for Carole King when Carole King was at, I think, the Kennedy Center Honors with President Barack Obama.

[9:01] Bill Shepherd: And I was kind of like, I'm glad I didn't read the whole playbill because that was the song I was waiting to hear and waiting to hear and waiting to hear. And I didn't want to go through the whole play just like waiting to hear my favorite song.

[9:14] Lara Scott: Yeah.

[9:14] Bill Shepherd: It kind of takes you out of the experience.

[9:15] Lara Scott: It does.

[9:16] Bill Shepherd: But like, all I mean, like so many, so many good songs, but I have to say that was the one that I felt the most connected to, the way that they told the story and the way that the plot unfolded.

[9:27] Lara Scott: Yeah.

[9:27] Bill Shepherd: Because a lot of the songs in the first act was like, oh no, we have this problem. Hit it! Just go into a song. They did that about three or four times in a row just to like get all the hits out.

[9:40] Lara Scott: Which is really fun. So I have a question. How was our friend Sarah Buckle?

[9:44] Bill Shepherd: Oh my goodness. Okay, so I had on my notes, I was saving Sarah to talk about that because, Bill, since you are a listener to the show, thank you very much. You know, we interviewed Sarah when they were in Denver.

[9:53] Lara Scott: I mean, this part of the tour, this I think it's the second time around, just started. I think the week before they were here.

[9:57] Bill Shepherd: So I mean, we're seeing fresh, they haven't been out on the road for a year, you know, with this current group. Flawless, first of all. She came out and it opens with, I think, Carole doing a concert like at Carnegie Hall in New York City in the 70s and she's playing "So Far Away" in its 70s, Carole with like the long curls and like the caftan and everything.

[10:17] Lara Scott: And then it flashes back to when she was a teenager, and the way she spoke sounded nothing like how she was when we talked to her on the phone. It wasn't just because she was on the phone. I mean, she became Carole King, the way she would stand, the hair, the costumes, the posture. She was just absolutely captivating.

[10:36] Bill Shepherd: The only thing that took me out of it, and Bill, maybe you can tell me, because we were close, but not close enough that I can confirm this. Was she pretending to play piano? Like was everybody pretending to be a little bit of a little bit of 'cause I kept looking at everyone's hands, going, are they pretending? And I was like, oh, I wish they were really playing piano. Like I feel like that would have brought something to it. Like with Waitress when they had the band on stage, even though the characters weren't playing. I kind of would have liked to have seen musicians on stage for this. That's the only thing.

[10:59] Lara Scott: I'm sure it's tough enough to try and sing like Carole King, but also to find an actress to also play piano like that. That's a pretty tough casting gig.

[11:08] Bill Shepherd: Yeah, well they did a good job lip syncing. The only thing I will say is that like I think the giveaway was she had a key, she had like a keyboard at one point. And you know that thum sound that when you hit the key, it goes thum like that and it sounds a little hollow. Like her mic was picking up the key sound when she was the plunk that she was playing. So you know nothing, no sound was coming out, and then the orchestra was coming out underneath them.

[11:30] Lara Scott: But yeah, she did pretty good. I really like the way that Sarah, you know, she starts out as a little girl, 16 or 17 in Brooklyn, and then she goes, it's like through her life, and like her presence, her voice, the way she acts. You can see her maturing through this two hours from 16, and she's a completely different person, like, you know, portraying different traits and different, you could just feel like she's had a life experience within those two hours.

[12:00] Bill Shepherd: She did a phenomenal job of like playing that range of ages. Very similar to Gloria Estefan's arc in On Your Feet.

[12:09] Lara Scott: Yeah.

[12:14] Bill Shepherd: And an icon.

[12:15] Lara Scott: Yeah, that's a great point, Bill, is that just you know, trying to remember how to speak at this age and then how to stand at this age, and you know, what you're doing at this point, what your relationship is to your husband at this point.

[12:25] Bill Shepherd: Yeah, that's that's a lot to keep track of.

[12:28] Lara Scott: And you know, this is one certainly it's not as colorful or well, parts of it are very colorful, like again when they're singing and doing some of those songs. But I like that they didn't try to cram everything from her life. And again, that might be why sadly Arifa and James Taylor didn't make it into this. But they they just stayed very focused, I think, on her journey from this point in time to this point in time, and just let it sort of play out.

[12:51] Lara Scott: And I I like that. It wasn't hard to follow again for someone I love you call it Carol King history buffs. Fans of Carol King's history. Uh, you know, you can just walk in there and and just enjoy it and not have to have a lot of prior knowledge.

[13:02] Bill Shepherd: I think Yeah, definit I mean like like someone like me that doesn't know a lot about Carol King's history or story or something like that. You can go in there and it's just a really good story. You really connect with the characters. They have, you know, struggles that you can relate to and and obstacles, and and you really root for the characters and and you don't have to know a whole bunch of backstory in order to love it and experience and have a good time at the theater.

[13:23] Lara Scott: Yeah, I love it. I wish he could have seen it.

[13:25] Bill Shepherd: Well, but hey, it's at the Pantages through September 30th. Let us know if you go see it. And then moving on to Orange County, it'll be at Sagerstrom Center for the Arts October 9th through 14th.

[13:35] Lara Scott: And the websites for both of those venues are HollywoodPantages.com and then SCFTA.org. Sagerstrom Center for the Arts, SCFTA.org.

[13:47] Will Armstrong: You're listening to West of Broadway with Will Armstrong and Lara Scott.

[13:51] Lara Scott: Well, speaking of the Pantages, back in the spring, I got to see the Phantom of the Opera sequel, Love Never Dies. So romantic and beautiful, and they've changed it up a lot. I think that, you know, this is one that's been around for a while. Never on Broadway. I hope it will be at some point. Um, but I saw the the tour of this and totally loved Madame Giury, played by Karen Mason, who's this incredible Broadway veteran. She's had and continues to have just the most wonderful career with roles in Wonderland, Hairspray, Mama Mia, and Sunset Boulevard, where she was Norma Desmond. She also has a lot of solo CDs, including her latest It's About Time.

[14:27] Lara Scott: And it's funny, Will, because she came into my radio station when she was in town and was we uh were kind of on hiatus with our podcast. Right. Was on with my friend Larry on the Snark Monkey, which I recommend checking out that episode. Uh, because we were talking about how yeah, Madame Geri is this really bitter character. Like she sacrificed everything for the phantom to try and promote herself and her daughter. And then when Christine Dae comes back into the picture, like things don't go well. I was like, where do you find all that rage and anger? And she said, Well, I went to Catholic school. Well, so yeah, we we bonded over that. So let's welcome actor, singer, and sensation Karen Mason to West of Broadway. Welcome, Karen.

[15:01] Karen Mason: Oh Karen, hi!

[15:08] Lara Scott: We're so happy to talk to you. And if you have to run to go back out on stage, let us know. Do we have like five minutes or so?

[15:15] Karen Mason: Oh, yeah, totally.

[15:23] Karen Mason: Oh, at the end, that part that gave me chills. I was like, oh, oh my gosh, I love you so much.

[15:30] Lara Scott: Thank you. So this is cool. So uh we're recording right now, and you are calling from intermission. Love Never Dies is in North Carolina right now, right?

[15:38] Karen Mason: Yes, we are actually. We're in the middle of the hurricane.

[15:41] Lara Scott: I do. How oh my goodness.

[15:42] Karen Mason: Yeah, yeah.

[15:43] Lara Scott: Is everybody safe? Everybody good? What's the situation?

[15:45] Karen Mason: Yeah, it's uh as we're recording this today, it's September 16th. We've been seeing all the coverage uh Florence and and you guys are okay and and people are there at the theater.

[15:52] Karen Mason: Oh yeah, it's amazing. We're in Charlotte, so we're in the path. We didn't get the total impact of the hurricane. But there's a lot of rain and and wind, and it's amazing. We don't have you know, full houses, but the people that are here are just loving it and really amazing. And um, you know, good grief, they are warriors to come through this. You know, the wind is amazing and and a lot of rain. So we're very happy here at the Belk Theater. And um, you know, wish everybody could have come to see it, but the ones who are here are fantastic, and uh so it's been a lot of fun.

[16:32] Will Armstrong: You know, Kara, uh it's always a treat to go to the theater and just step away from real life, and especially with the show like Love Never Dies, which is so just all-encompassing, all-engrossing. But especially with everything that people have been through and and the lead up to this, and now it's here, and then you know, here comes the aftermath. So, you know, what a what a wonderful thing that you guys are just on it and and giving them this this couple of hours to forget about all of that.

[16:54] Karen Mason: Absolutely. You know, I I when I was doing Mamma Mia, we opened right after 9-11. And I'll never forget how impactful it was. We thought, oh, it's you know, kind of trivial to be doing a show after something so traumatic and devastating. And yet it's exactly what you said. It's it's a uh a few hours of getting away from what's outside those doors. And um it's I feel very proud to be able to share that with people.

[17:27] Will Armstrong: Miss Mason, this is Will Armstrong. Um, we haven't met in person, but I'm a huge fan. And I actually was in the I was in the audience during Mamma Mia, um right after right at that time. And it was such a wonderful escape and so necessary for the community to have Broadway to turn to and and help us escape.

[17:48] Karen Mason: Right. I know it we really thought oh no one's gonna show up and it's just gonna be you know our family and a few friends who can make it in. And it was amazing to have that energy at the end of the show it was all of that angst and fear and and you know just worry people just released it. When we started the Megamic you know that last part where with the um the bows when they go into dancing queen again and Waterloo and all those great hits the see they're calling five minutes for uh second act.

[18:32] Will Armstrong: So exciting there with you I think we're backstage but not but it you know, to feel that energy of that release for everybody was the most amazing experience I've ever had in the theater really Judy Kay actually turned to me and said this must be what it's like to be a rock star because I've never felt that that oh it's just overwhelming you could feel the the energy coming at you. It was amazing it really was wonderful.

[19:03] Will Armstrong: Um so you're on tour right now and you're um you're uh pleasing audiences nationwide just going around do you get an opportunity to do any of your cabaret songs like do you have like on on nights off or benefits or anything like that, or

[19:03] Karen Mason: well, yeah, I mean, we we have done a couple of concerts with um the cast of uh Love Never Dies in a couple of different cities for Broadway Cares Equity Fights A.

[19:29] Will Armstrong: Wonderful.

[19:31] Karen Mason: And they are always a lot of fun. I I you know, to be able to get up and sing something that's not ten long years. It's really I don't know, it's really lovely to sing an uptempo, everyone. If I if I was at a bar or at a at a cabaret and Karen Mason walked up to the microphone I in like the middle of like anywhere in America outside of New York, I don't know what I would do. I would be so I would film it and put it on Instagram and then tag at Karen Diva.

[19:58] Karen Mason: But Karen, we seriously going to Chicago. I have I do have a couple of concert like uh cabaret things coming up. One in I I opened a bar in Chicago, a cabaret in Chicago called Davenport's, and it's their 20th anniversary. So I'm gonna go back. It's actually my layoff from Love Never Dies in November. It's the seventh, eighth, tenth, and eleventh. And it's their 20th anniversary, so I'm gonna go back and sing a few tunes there in Chicago and do that. And then at the end of December, I'll be out in California at the Orinda Theater in Orinda, California, which is outside of San Francisco, I think.

[20:39] Lara Scott: Yes, it's up in the Bay Area. Calm down here, please and keep us posted because we would love to come out and and share you on and and see you perform. I was telling Will how great your CD is.

[20:48] Karen Mason: Yes and maybe we talk about that quickly. It's about time and uh everything's coming up. Roses, the man that got away, over the rainbow. It's just these beautiful songs. And then the title track was an original song. Uh you wrote, did you write it with your hubby who produced the CD?

[21:03] Karen Mason: Oh, I didn't write it. I have absolutely no writing skills whatsoever.

[21:07] Lara Scott: You sung it like you wrote it though, like you felt it.

[21:10] Karen Mason: But yeah, that that was a beautiful song.

[21:12] Lara Scott: Thank you. It was written by a Californian and my husband, uh Shelley Markham, who lives in the Los Angeles area. And my husband wrote it uh when marriage equality passed in New York State. And I got asked to sing at a couple friends' wedding. And um I said this is a perfect opportunity to write a song, and he did, and I I'm so proud of him. And it's a beautiful and him and Shelly, it's a beautiful song. And listen, I would love to be hired to sing it at every wedding I possibly could.

[21:43] Will Armstrong: Hey, Will's a publicist.

[21:45] Karen Mason: So yeah, you're talking about.

[21:47] Will Armstrong: No, perfect. Also, uh, Karen, maybe at a wedding you could show off your line dancing skills that you uh learned when you guys were in Texas.

[21:56] Karen Mason: Uh that was so fun.

[22:00] Karen Mason: That was, yeah. Oh my gosh, you guys I will do anything for an Instagram.

[22:04] Lara Scott: Me too.

[22:05] Karen Mason: We are cut from the same cloth.

[22:06] Lara Scott: Yes.

[22:07] Karen Mason: It was so cute. Well, because I I was commenting on her photo, it was uh a video, and you were in your costume, right? And Phantom was in his mask in a cowboy hat. And were you guys doing the two-step?

[22:15] Karen Mason: Or yeah, it was amazing. But it was kind of like the yes, the love never dies version of the two-step.

[22:22] Lara Scott: Yes.

[22:23] Karen Mason: Amazing. The boot scoot boogie, one of my favorite. It's so funny because uh performing in New York, and uh you have your show, but you also have your life, because you have your home, you have your family and everything. But when you're on tour, your tour cast is your family. So these incredible tighter and closer, and the the experiences you have are just so magical. It it's it's like nothing else. Uh be doing a tour with an amazing cast of talented, beautiful, lovely, fun, exciting people. You know, and now thanks to Instagram. This is my first long tour, so I didn't really I'd heard all the stories and you know felt prepared, but um I I I'm actually very, very, very lucky that this group of people, the the synergy between this company amongst this company is is really remarkable.

Uh there's a lot of love and care and integrity about the show, which um I I'm really happy to see, you know, that the people, even though we've been doing it a year and something now, people still love going out and doing the show with each other. And that's that's pretty great.

[23:35] Lara Scott: It really is a family.

[23:37] Bill Shepherd: That's so wonderful because you guys still have a little ways to go. So we're glad to hear that everybody's getting away.

[23:41] Karen Mason: Yeah, we do Michigan, Iowa.

[23:47] Lara Scott: Oh my gosh. Well, Karen, it has been such a pleasure talking to you and KarenMason.com online, Karen Mason Diva on Instagram.

[23:55] Lara Scott: Oh my gosh. And we look forward to seeing you hopefully out here in well, for sure up in the Bay Area in a couple of months, but hopefully here in LA too.

[24:01] Karen Mason: Yes.

[24:02] Karen Mason: Thank you. I hope so too, and thank you for always being so sweet to me. I really appreciate it.

[24:06] Lara Scott: Uh we adore you. We're gonna send you out with applause, back on the stage, Madam Cheery. We'll talk to you soon.

[24:12] Karen Mason: Thanks so much, Karen.

[24:14] Karen Mason: All right. Take care.

[24:16] Karen Mason: Bye.

[24:16] Lara Scott: Oh, I love her so much.

[24:18] Will Armstrong: I isn't she the sweetest?

[24:19] Lara Scott: Wow.

[24:20] Will Armstrong: So sweet.

[24:21] Lara Scott: Kind of exactly what I pictured.

[24:22] Will Armstrong: Yeah.

[24:23] Lara Scott: Well, you know, because there's not uh clones of us will, and speaking of going to see many shows and many news shows and many smaller shows, we have brought in our very first West of Broadway ensemble member, our correspondent, Jennifer Lynn O'Harett.

[24:38] Will Armstrong: She is an actress. She has done theater, she's done TV, she does it all, she's a gardener, and she's gone to check out a couple of shows. Welcome, JJ.

[24:46] JJ: Hey, JJ.

[24:48] JJ: Hello.

[24:48] Will Armstrong: All right. So we are so excited to hear about Side by Side by Sondheim at the Odyssey Theater in LA and then Dream Girls at the Cupcake Theater in North Hollywood, which Will mentioned a couple episodes ago, talking about how it was going to be there that the owner had won Cupcake Awards or yeah, and then opened up this theater. So, JJ, how are you, first of all?

[25:07] JJ: I am well. I'm fantastic. How are you both?

[25:10] Will Armstrong: Wonderful. So excited to talk to you. Well, where would you like to start?

[25:18] JJ: Let's start with Side by Side by Sondheim.

[25:20] JJ: Oh, excellent. Yeah, that was the first one I saw. It's at the Odyssey Theater, which is a great venue. They've actually got three stages of the Odyssey Theater, which I had no idea. They have a great parking lot. Parking is actually really easy.

[25:33] Will Armstrong: Um LA, right?

[25:38] JJ: Oh, wait, it's by the 405, right?

[25:40] Will Armstrong: I think I've driven by there.

[25:41] JJ: Oh, I know exactly. You're right. That is a good location.

[25:43] JJ: Yeah, it's just off the 405, so it's really easy to get to, yeah. And this is it's a review style show, right?

[25:47] JJ: It is a review style show, and obviously, by the name, it's all about Sondheim, and it really goes through, it actually went up through 1976. So that's when the show, the review kind of stops, but it really highlights all of his shows and his music that he did before 1976. You hear songs from musicals that you've never heard before because the musicals only ran for, you know, nine performances or just a couple of weeks or something. You see songs that were in shows but then were cut after it went through its test period before they launched on Broadway. And then you also hear songs that you don't remember that were written by Sondheim. For example, I completely, as long as I've been in musical theater, I never remembered that Sondheim wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and for Gypsy.

[26:39] Will Armstrong: Yep.

[26:40] JJ: Isn't that amazing?

[26:41] Will Armstrong: It's amazing. You don't when you think of West Side Story and you think of Gypsy, you don't necessarily think of Sondheim. But those are Sondheim words.

[26:48] JJ: But and isn't it interesting, JJ, like you were saying, here's Stephen Sondheim doing the music for West Side Story and Gypsy, but he also had shows that closed after nine performances. So I hope that gives hope to people that maybe have gone through something with the show that wasn't that successful.

[27:01] JJ: Right. You know, and I was reading an article after seeing the show because of course it sparked my interest in Sondheim, and he was talking about West Side Story and actually how he wrote West Side Story when he was very young and he actually looks back on it with embarrassment.

[27:15] Will Armstrong: What?

[27:16] JJ: Right, yes, because his later, you know, his later songs are so complicated and his lyrics are so just, you know, interesting and intricate and clever, and he looks back on West Side Story and he's like, "Well, it's very simple and you know, it's kind of cheesy." But that's Sondheim for you. When you look at West Side Story and you call it simple and cheesy, you know exactly. But like the song "Cool" from West Side Story, I think is so Sondheim, like the words that he uses and the way that that song is written, I think it has Sondheim written all over it.

[27:49] JJ: Yeah, and there's little glimpses when you think of it in that way, you go, "Oh, there's Sondheim," and then you kind of see an early Sondheim showing through.

[27:58] JJ: Absolutely. And in Gypsy, Bernadette Peters was in the original production of Gypsy, and that's when she first started working with Sondheim, and that's how their relationship began.

[28:06] Will Armstrong: Ah, there's so much history. I love Bernadette Peters.

[28:09] JJ: Oh, is she great?

[28:10] Will Armstrong: And then of course her famous iconic role is The Witch in Into the Woods, which, oh man.

[28:16] JJ: Or Dot in Sunday in the Park with George.

[28:19] Will Armstrong: Or like, I mean, we could...

[28:21] JJ: Or like everything.

[28:22] Will Armstrong: Or everything. Or I know it wasn't Sondheim, but Annie.

[28:25] JJ: Yeah.

[28:25] Will Armstrong: Remember the movie? That was my introduction to Bernadette Peters with seeing Annie. And I thought she was amazing and I loved her hair. But you're right. Then I went back and I listened to her in all of the, I saw her on a Sondheim special singing all of those songs.

[28:37] JJ: Oh good. She's so amazing. Well, what were some of the songs that were in this one that people can look forward to seeing?

[28:43] JJ: They went through and they did a couple from each of his shows. So they did A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. They did Company, a lot from Company. They did Anyone Can Whistle. Of course, West Side Story and Gypsy. They did a bunch from Follies.

[28:55] Will Armstrong: Well, um, yeah, which, oh my goodness, I love Follies.

[29:01] JJ: And they were just some, you know, from The Seven Percent Solution. I mean, there were these songs, there were these shows that you don't even...

[29:10] Will Armstrong: Evening Primrose?

[29:12] JJ: I have not.

[29:12] Will Armstrong: No.

[29:13] JJ: I know, right? Because it's one of those ones that just never actually happened. But now you should go see Side by Side by Sondheim.

[29:19] Will Armstrong: How was the cast?

[29:20] JJ: Yeah, the cast was fantastic. There were four people in the cast, and talk about an extra comparison between Side by Side by Sondheim and Dream Girls, which we'll talk about later. There were only four people in the cast. Three of them, all of them were singers, but one of them was the narrator, so he did mostly narration and talking about the history of Sondheim and the history of the songs, and then also included some current information, not just pre-1976 information, but some, as a Broadway history buff, I appreciate that. Like I think that that's what The World Goes Round might have been missing.

[29:53] Will Armstrong: Oh, that would have been nice, just kind of setting up each one.

[29:55] JJ: And just more appreciation of what the story behind each one of the songs. I mean, that's exactly, well, you hit it on the head because that's exactly what he did. He really set up the songs and then made you look at them in a new way and you appreciated them all the more. And you appreciated the songs and the shows, but also the genius of Sondheim. And also just the humanity of Sondheim because he had failures just like the rest of us did. He also had a lot of the same types of challenges with the entertainment industry that all of us face. But so there were four people in the cast, one narrator and then three actor singers. All of them were fantastic voices. The two ladies were exceptional dancers, and there's one who just cracked.

Her name was Rachel McLaughlin, and she played Woman One. She had some of, she had a fantastic voice, but she also had the really funny songs, and she was absolutely hysterical. She just really, really lit up the stage with her humor as well as her talent. It was fantastic.

[30:55] Will Armstrong: I wanna go see this.

[30:56] JJ: Based on, I mean, I love Sondheim, but based on that, JJ, thank you. So do you have the info on how long it's running?

[31:07] JJ: It just closed on, just closed on, I think today it actually is closing day.

[31:10] Will Armstrong: So it's September sixteenth.

[31:12] JJ: Yeah.

[31:12] Will Armstrong: Yeah, I caught both of these shows towards the end of their runs. But the other shows that I'll see, I'll see at the beginning of their runs. But you know what? It's great to give props to the actors, you know, and certainly the individual shows because a lot of them come around again, you know, in one way, shape, or form.

[31:24] JJ: So that's great. Okay, so Side by Side by Sondheim.

[31:26] JJ: And I did talk to a lot of the audience members for both of these productions, and they were our regular audience members, and both sets of audience members said that they've never seen a bad show at these theaters.

[31:39] Will Armstrong: Oh great.

[31:39] JJ: So, which speaks to other productions that will be launched at both of these theaters, that chances are they're going to be really good productions.

[31:47] Will Armstrong: Awesome. Well, let's move on to Dream Girls at the Cupcake Theater in North Hollywood in NoHo.

[31:53] JJ: Yeah, Side, the Dream Girls, I'd never seen this before. And it was brand new. I was a newbie, but man, it was fantastic. It was almost three hours.

[32:05] Will Armstrong: Wow.

[32:05] JJ: But it did not feel like almost three hours. It was just powerhouse after powerhouse after powerhouse song. It was super high energy. There was always something to look at on the stage, and it's a relatively small theater. This is the Cupcake Theater in North Hollywood. So to launch a show like Dream Girls on this relatively small stage was quite an undertaking, and I wasn't sure how they were going to do it, but they did it. And just to give you an idea of what kind of show this is, in this particular show, they had four hundred and fifty costumes.

[32:36] Will Armstrong: What?

[32:36] JJ: Four hundred and fifty costumes.

[32:48] Will Armstrong: Where did they put them in this tiny theater?

[32:52] JJ: A trailer out in the back that they're hanging the costumes in.

[32:55] Will Armstrong: That's incredible.

[32:56] JJ: So it was really like full on, right?

[32:58] JJ: It was full on. They had sixty-nine wigs.

[33:02] Will Armstrong: Whoa.

[33:03] JJ: Every time these girls came out on stage, they had different hair, and it was all fabulous. It was amazing. It was just, they w, the music was, they had a little combo that was up in kind of the little rafters to the left of the theater. So they had a live band that played with them, and they were just, and the show, these voices were Broadway caliber voices. In fact, there's one, he played Curtis Taylor, his name was Apollo Levine, or Levine, I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but I am positive I'm going to see him playing Washington in Hamilton fairly soon because he's just amazing.

[33:43] Will Armstrong: Well, that's what's so nice about Los Angeles is there's so much talent that comes here for so many different reasons. And to have these small theaters like these little gems all over, and they can attract just the best of the best, it's just incredible.

[33:59] JJ: Yeah, and when the director did the curtain speech before the show, he actually talked about some of the people that would be replacing the regular players in the show because they are now appearing on Broadway.

[34:09] Will Armstrong: Wow.

[34:09] JJ: One of them is playing Nala in Lion King. One of them, you know, they're just, so there are Broadway voices. Shante, who played Dina, was just out of this world. She had a range and acting skills that went from shy and retiring because the Dina character is, you know, the one that starts out as the background singer and then...

[34:35] Will Armstrong: Exactly, oh thank you for putting it that way.

[34:35] JJ: Yeah, and she went from shy and you didn't necessarily notice her at first to just taking over the stage with her voice and her character. She was, it was brilliant. The girl playing Effie was Dominique Kent, and she was, wow, all of them. Every single one. I've been on the website several times, and the show keeps getting extended. And I was like, this must be pretty good. It keeps, and so it's open until September 30th or something like that.

[35:07] Will Armstrong: Like in the...

[35:09] JJ: Yeah, I believe they just extended it.

[35:10] Will Armstrong: That's just incredible.

[35:11] JJ: Maybe into October.

[35:11] Will Armstrong: Yeah.

[35:11] JJ: Maybe longer than that if everybody goes to see it, right?

[35:14] Will Armstrong: That's incredible.

[35:15] JJ: Yeah. Oh, that's wonderful. Well, JJ, thank you so much. We're definitely gonna keep an eye on what's happening at both of those theaters. Great venues, great talent, and well worth a night out.

[35:25] Will Armstrong: Oh, wonderful. Well, thank you, JJ. So glad you had fun. Thank you for that awesome report, and we will talk to you again soon.

[35:30] JJ: Okay, JJ, JJ!

[35:32] JJ: Thank you.

[35:33] JJ: Bye.

[35:33] Will Armstrong: Bye. Well, Lara, I guess what, um, we've reached the end of our episode. I'm so grateful to Karen Mason for reaching out, my incredible husband, Bill Shepherd, for pinch hitting for me.

[35:43] Lara Scott: And singing.

[35:43] Will Armstrong: Yeah. And singing. And Jennifer Lynn O'Hara with her first report, like our ensemble member of West of Broadway. I mean, it's just very exciting. And you know what? We can see Bill actually online because there's always cute photos of him.

[35:56] Lara Scott: Well, because I'm obsessed with Instagram, you can follow me on at Will Armstrong PR if you want pictures of me, my husband, and our dogs.

[36:04] Will Armstrong: And occasional musical theater. Check it out at Will Armstrong PR.

[36:09] Lara Scott: I'm at Radio Lara. That's Radio L A R A on Twitter and Instagram. And we just want to say thank you so much for joining us here on the podcast. And if you're looking for us, you can find us just west of Broadway.